Washington University

University of Illinois

Patricia B Weisensee

William P King

John Mark Meacham

Nenad Miljkovic

Damena Agonafer

Binjian Ma

Li Shan

Tianyu Yang

Mehran Abolghasemibizaki

Beomjin Kwon

Junhui Li

A heat exchanger for thermal management of an electronic device includes a liquid delivery layer thermally coupled to the electronic device and configured to receive a liquid from a source. The heat exchanger also includes an evaporation layer comprising hollow pillars configured to receive a continuous flow of the liquid from the liquid delivery layer and evaporate the continuous flow of the liquid from droplets maintained on the hollow pillars. Each hollow pillar has an evaporation surface and a pore configured to channel the continuous flow of the liquid through the hollow pillar to the evaporation surface. The evaporation surface being configured to maintain a droplet on the respective hollow pillar within a contact line. The evaporation surface has a wetting efficiency of at least about 95% and the contact line has a length of less than about 0.0314 mm.

Methods and systems for evaporation of liquid from droplet confined on hollow pillar

A passive heat switch device is disclosed that includes a casing defining a closed channel, as well as a passive thermal actuator and liquid slug positioned inside the closed channel. The closed channel includes a heat conducting region made of a heat conducting material and an insulating region made of an insulating material. The passive thermal actuator is thermally coupled to the heat conducting material of the heat conducting region and extends into the insulating region of the closed channel. The passive thermal actuator deforms when an actuator temperature falls within a switching temperature range. The liquid slug is positioned within the closed channel and contacts at least a portion of the passive thermal actuator and the closed channel and is configured to move along the closed channel between the insulating region and the thermally conductive region in response to deformation of the passive thermal actuator.

Passive and compact liquid metal heat switch

An active thermal management system for electronic devices comprises: a heat spreader having an internal channel; a thermally conductive body moveably positioned in the internal channel; and two or more electronic devices in thermal contact with a back surface of the heat spreader and positioned adjacent to the internal channel. A location of the thermally conductive body within the internal channel determines a path for heat flow from the back surface to a front surface of the heat spreader. The location of the thermally conductive body within the internal channel may be selected to minimize a temperature differential (&#x394;T) between the electronic devices.

Active thermal management system for electronic devices and method of achieving device-to-device isothermalization

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Patricia B Weisensee